Community leaders need a strong vision and clear plan to improve the areas they serve. Often communities conduct visioning surveys to gather ideas that can be used to develop a shared vision for its future and to create plans to achieve that vision over time.

Regular visioning surveys allow community leaders to respond to emerging trends and issues. They also allow planners to create a long-term vision with a focus on near-term action.

While visioning surveys take a variety of forms, most try to answer several fundamental questions for a community including:

What do citizens value most about living in your community?

What are the most important issues facing your community?

How important are these issues?

How well are community leaders addressing the issues?

Is the community headed in the right or wrong direction?

What changes would residents like to see the community address?

For city leaders seeking ideas for improving their communities, these types of surveys are an excellent tool to create a dialogue with the community and to develop the future that citizens want and the plans to achieve it.